Thanks for reviewing: RVFlorida, angela1174, bigbangfan91, TVHollywoodDiva, GoofyTexan, mika-faberryluver4395, healthy, NZgleek91, pgranger, Guest, Devin Jaste (For ch1&4), Guest, Guest, Kutee (For Ch1,2,3&4), gllover22, rm06, OutOfNoWhereHereIAm, Loner-wolf, iloveDiannaAgron, Gleelover47, General Mac, MissyC, BellaDora Soulmates and ccvt14.
Its quoted from the show that SVU deal with sex crimes, child abuse, and child abandonment... just if anyone wanted to know.
Sorry for my longer absence... :/
Posted: 10/11/13
Trail
The 16th Precinct
Monday, December 7th
It had been a couple of months since they caught up with their old perp, Toure, but it only felt like a couple of weeks. The past two months had been full of all types of cases, some with more urgent time limits on them. The longest they had worked non-stop was 3 days, Brittany had been amazing, checking in on her girlfriend, and her roommate and the rest of the team both evenings, bringing them all supplies. Rachel already knew how lucky Santana was before they joined SVU but now there was no doubt of just how amazing Brittany was for her girlfriend. Rachel wouldn't admit it, but she was just a little jealous.
On the other side of things the team had built bridges of friendship too, even though they spent so much time together with work they still found time in the week to be social together and frequent a cop bar or two a week. Sometimes Rachel found herself with just her partner, sometimes the entire team. She quickly found that their Captain didn't drink, he was an ex-drunk and had attended AA meetings until he was confidently clean. That knowledge just begged the question 'Why did Cragen keep a bottle of gin in his office?'
Also Rachel had strengthened her friendship with Quinn. Santana and Brittany had been there too but with Rachel distracted by a new old friend they had been making the most of that too without feeling any guilt.
Rachel and Quinn's rekindled friendship was uneasy at first, there was still the tension from all of Quinn's confessions but they got past them, or at least pretended to. Even now Rachel thought it was incredible that Quinn could have such feelings for her, or that Quinn was even a lesbian, it was like she didn't know her, like Quinn was an all different person... until they talked, and the young woman she had made friends with while in college was there, still smart, fun, kind, no longer her former fake high school self.
"They've got a body, sewage treatment plant" Cragen's voice woke Rachel from her day dream at her desk.
"And they called us?" Rachel furrowed her brow as she looked to her partner opposite. She could only imagine how the victim had been found. Maybe some woman was attacked and raped, and it had only got worse for them ending in a body dump
"Benson, Berry" The captain ordered, seeing as Fin and Santana were following leads on another case; several reports of a man exposing him in Central Park... like that unfortunately hadn't heard that one before.
"On it, Captain" Benson called back as she and Berry snapped into action.
Q~Q
"Victim's a white male, late teens early 20's" A uniformed Officer reported the initial findings as he walked Rachel through the sewage treatment room towards where the body had been laid out. The room was like a warehouse with several pools and pipes running through it, each 'pool' in the floor was treating the sewage, removing all the toxic substances to turn it into clean water again. "Looks like something's been shoved up his, uh, you know," the male officer continued awkwardly "Figured we should call you guys."
"Good call" Rachel complimented and held back the sarcasm and the eye role. "What kind of security does this place have?" She asked.
"It's locked up on nights and weekends but anyone with a pocket knife could break in" he explained, then scoffed "I mean, who steals sewage?"
She avoided his light hearted talking and just kept searching for answers. Benson was already talking with some employees, the one's who'd found the body, not far from where it was now. "Any luck ID-ing the victim?" The shorter SVU detective asked.
"No wallet, no clothes, no nothing" he shrugged reluctantly.
"Keep looking" she told him. They might still find something and it would make this guy useful. He just nodded and walked away to join the other officials on the scene, already searching. She then joined her partner and caught the end of discussion.
"The diffuser created artificial turbulence in the aeration tanks and the swirling action keeps solids from rising to the surface" one of the workers in the overalls explained.
"So that's why the body didn't float" and why it wasn't found first thing this morning, Olivia concluded.
"How long would decomposition take?" Rachel asked, using her voice to let her partner know she was now by her side.
"There's about 10 trillion micro organisms in that sludge. Anything organic they eat. Best guess, about a week" Another worker said, younger than the first, the way he spoke made it sound like he liked his job too much.
"The body's still intact" Benson concluded, again, as she crouched down, her hand instinctually covered her mouth and nose for a moment, the smell of the sewage was even stronger closer to the floor "But I bet the microbes had enough time to eat up all our trace evidence"
"Whoever dumped the victim, really knew their crap" Rachel couldn't help but eye roll at that comment from the officer from before as he walked past.
Q~Q
Office and examination room of ME Melinda Warner
Tuesday, December 8th
Dr Warner never failed to impress the junior detective. She wished the Narcotics ME had been this efficient. She'd only had the body for a day, but she was about to give them all the answers. The day before, even with Fin and Santana jumping on the case they were at a dead end, they had nothing until they had the ME's report.
They stood in front of the body on the morticians slab. Luckily it was covered, Melinda had everything she needed in pictures. "Judging from the putrefaction of the abdominal cavity I'd say the body went in the water about 36 hours ago" she started with the basics as she lead them across the room to a table where she had any evidence she had collected laying out in the evidence bags.
"So late Saturday night, Really early Sunday morning?" Rachel checked. Melinda and Olivia silently agreed with nods of the head.
"Do you know how he died?" Benson encouraged.
"Blunt force trauma to the head. Sewage water washed away most of our evidence. But I did find this embedded in the victims scalp" she handed Rachel a small evidence bag that had some kind of shrapnel inside it.
Rachel focused her eyes as she analysed, she looked at the pieces, they were colourless but captured the light easily "Glass?" she asked as she handed the sample to her partner for her own look.
"Pyrex." Warner half corrected.
Olivia furrowed her brow "Our murder weapon was CorningWare?"
"Possibly." Melinda agreed before leaving the evidence table then heading over to the light box where the x-rays and photographs were hung.
"We didn't find any glass at the site. He must have been murdered somewhere else." Benson concluded as she put the bag down and followed with her partner to the opposite side of the room.
"He was also sodomised with something that caused severe lacerations to his anus."
Rachel grimaced a little, she remembered the officers 'report' that it looked like something had been shoved up his 'uh, you know'. "Okay, something like what?"
"Won't know until I open him up," she switched the light box on, highlighting the photograph she had pinned up there, of the victims arm "But I found this on his arm," she pointed to the shapes, maybe letters, tattooed onto the skin "body was too bloated from emersion to identify at first, I had to remove 5 layers of epidermis to get a clear look at the ink."
The two detectives scanned the photo of the faded tattoo. "Those look like Greek letters" Rachel voiced her analysis.
"Tau Omega fraternity." She told them, surprising both of them. She then walked over to another table, where she had book sitting open, waiting for them. "I found your John Doe in the fraternity face book. My husband's Alpha Phi Alpha. He keeps his Greek directory right next to his Harry Potter hard covers" She said the last part with an eye rolling tone. Rachel and Olivia both huffed a light humoured laugh as Olivia took the book from the Medical Examiner.
They both read from the book, Olivia aloud, picking out the important parts from the short profile information next to the photograph of the 'Brother' "Okay... Tyler Henry, Treasurer of Pan Hellanic Council"
Melinda just continued to spoon feed them the information they'd been looking for "Ran it through missing persons, one of his house mates, Rob Sweeney, reported him missing yesterday"
Q~Q
Tau Omega Fraternity House
Wallace University
Tuesday, December 8
They met with Rob outside his fraternity house, he looked shocked but he didn't break down, almost as if he'd already given up hope when he filed the missing persons report. "I knew something was up when he didn't show up to pong night last Saturday." The floppy haired brunette boy let the detectives in, it was too cold to stand outside at this time of year.
"Rob, do you always call the cops when someone misses a beer bash?" Detective Berry asked first, it already sounded suspicious to her, and Olivia but Olivia wasn't so obvious.
"Tyler was pledge master this year, he'd been planning this since august" He explained with sadness and disbelief in his voice. Then the grief parted to hit him with something else. "Man, what am I going to tell his dad?"
"We'll notify Tyler's parents. Do you know where we could find them?" Benson assured him, hoping to clear some of the worry so he could think clearly for them.
He searched his head for one of the two parent's whereabouts. "They're divorced. His Mom lives in Maine, his dad works in a law firm uptown. I want to tell his dad, he should hear it from a brother"
"Tyler's dad is a Tau Omega?" Rachel asked as she looked around, there were a few brothers cleaning the place, probably from the party they'd had the same night it was calculated Tyler Henry was killed.
The brunette boy just nodded "Class of 74. Pretty cool for an old guy, let me borrow his jag for a job interview in Hartford last week"
"You and Tyler get along?" Olivia assumed more than asked from his previous statement.
"You kidding? We were pals" he sighed.
He led them through the frat house to Tyler's room, imagining they'd want to check that out to find out what happened to his friend. "I guess dad is pretty cool" Rachel commented as she walked into a tech wonderland, the kid had everything, the latest computers, latest sound system, music, movies, games. More than most people could want.
"Not that cool." Rob shrugged "He only paid tuition, he wanted Tyler to learn the value of the dollar." Rachel wanted to roll her eyes at the 'only paid for tuition' comment.
"So how did Tyler, um, pay for all this?" Berry asked the obvious, her partner seemed to be letting her have more opportunities to speak lately, that or the senior detective was preoccupied with the things she was looking at in the room.
"Doing web design, hosting sites, that kind of crap" he guessed, like he wasn't sure what it was really all about.
"He must be pretty damn good at it" Berry's eyes scanned the desk against the wall near the door, seeing if she could find anything poignant there. It looked clear, so she decided to look elsewhere.
Olivia caught Rachel's eye, they could almost tell what the other was thinking, and it was similar to what they were already thinking themselves "Or he's supplementing his income" Benson then looked to Rob "So how much do you figures in the Pan Hellanic Treasury?"
Rob shrugged again "70, maybe 80 grand" he estimated... then he caught onto what both women were thinking , so he rushed to cut that idea short "he wasn't stealing from the council if that's what you're thinking, he was just good with money, look" he went straight to the computer that was still on, he woke it up and opened a file "it's all right here"
Q~Q
TARU (Technical Assistance Response Unit)
The computer was quickly collected by the TARU analysts and taken back to their lab where they could pull it apart. The two detectives were soon listening to the reports for the techs. "Your victim was many things but he wasn't a thief"
"So where did he get his money?" Berry asked as she wandered round to get a better look of the screen.
"40,000 came via direct deposit from a variety of web retailers" The TARU tech informed her as he loaded the documents showing bank records.
"Well he couldn't have made that much designing websites" Benson scoffed.
"He didn't" The tech bought up a web page full of photo's a pornographic video clips "He made it off his own site"
"The rack menagerie" Olivia read questionably.
"Wet T-shirt contests – girl on girl action – Free streaming video" the tech read the summary, in case either detective hadn't got the idea already.
"He made money on porn" Rachel scoffed, it should have been predictable, a boy in a frat house, follow the clichés of it all and where did it lead.
"Technically no, accessing the video was free the money was coming from advertisers, 40,000 in pop-up banners and ad's last year"
"Don't tell me, ads for hard core porn sites" Benson figured.
"So Tyler would show the viewers free samples and then they'd have to pay for the real deal" Rachel assumed. She wasn't familiar with this in crime, drug dealers didn't tend to use websites.
"Funny thing is he had plenty of the real deal to show" he loaded another page "Here's Tyler's other website, he calls it his free fun house" he played the beginning of a clip.
They watched Tyler up close to the camera, say "Hi everyone, you're about to see Joanne in action, she's a freshman from Chicago shh" he hushed, l before stepping away from the camera and kneeling on the bed. A girl came in in her underwear, she smiled at him before climbing on the bed too and started making out with Tyler on the bed.
"She's not the only one, he's filmed himself having sex with a bunch of different girls. 'Black, Asian, blonde, brunette'," the TARU tech quoted from the screen "He even got one with Pink hair"
"Okay, we're gonna need a list of all the girls and a list of Tyler's advertisers. Starting with locals if you've got them" the senior detective requested.
Q~Q
The 16th Precinct
Wednesday, December 9th
"How's it been going for you guys?" Rachel asked after she put the phone down on another dead end. The list of advertisers had given them a lot of people to investigate. Fin and Santana had been following one and it had progressed so they'd stuck with it.
"Well after the list you guys got yesterday, we followed one of them, it stood up in comparison to the other 'advertisers'. So we checked out Moose's Pub, 536 Hudson, we talked to the owner, the guy seemed... not sad" Santana tried to explain, she was trying to find the right word to describe his reaction. She looked to Fin, trying to find the answer.
"He didn't sound like he'd be sending flowers for the funeral, but he wasn't happy. He said Tyler made him a load of money with this" he picked up a flyer from his desk and passed it to Benson.
"Ladies night at Moose's pub, Wednesdays, free cover, 2 for 1 drinks for the ladies, $10 per covered gentleman." She read it aloud for Rachel's benefit too. She then furrowed her brow at the last part of information. "Doors close at 11?"
"He said that's when the wet t-shirt contest starts" Santana muttered dryly "Guy said 'Hotties are tanked up by then', guys cheering them on, he said he'd get 3 grand on those nights"
"So, Tyler set this up, then advertised it?" Rachel asked, how else could the guy be that impressed by what Tyler had done for him.
"Yeah by filming the 'contests' and putting them on his site" Tutuola explained further.
"Did you get anything else?" Olivia pushed. They hadn't had much time to catch up on either pair's progress in the case yet, and neither had come across anything completely solid that would let them give up on other leads just yet.
"Yeah, they had some legal trouble, so we had to go talk to Tyler's dad" Santana answered, that had been the second part in the trail she and Fin had been following all day.
"Tutuola might have pissed him off by insinuating things about his son's questionable business, but we got the name of the girl who took them to court. Chloe Spiers" She rolled her eyes as Rachel went to ask the obvious again, and then she cut the shortest detective off "And yeah we found her, talked to her. She said she was angry, the video could have lost her her scholarship. But she plays basket ball for her college, and her alibi checks out, she was at an away game in Phili on Saturday, didn't get back until Sunday afternoon"
"Wow, you guys did a lot in one day" Rachel muttered, hiding the guilt of the lack of legwork she had done today... though she and Olivia had been on top of that the day before.
"Yeah, what did you do?" Santana grumbled, narrowing her eyes at her ex-partner.
"Looked into the other advertisers, there's a few things that might be there but your lead sounds pretty strong" Olivia answered, partially defending her own partner.
"She has an alibi though" Lopez stressed, she hadn't phoned several people this afternoon for them to not listen to her.
"What about a boyfriend, or family member?" berry pointed out, knowing Santana sometimes had a short temper when she'd been working hard and people didn't seem to be listening.
"I've been pulling contacts Fin's been phoning them" she added, her mood weakening
"Yeah, did you get anymore on her dad?" Her partner asked.
"Yeah," she sifted through the mess of papers on her desk, trying to find the page she'd printed "finally got his name and latest address, seems suspicious" she checked it before passing it over to Fin.
"Cool, I'll check this out" he nodded, then read the page, preparing himself before picking up the phone and finding out more about this guy.
"K, I need coffee" she sat up right in her chair and rolled her shoulders trying to stretch a little. She looked at the pot of black liquid, barely worthy of the name 'coffee', and grimaced "Real coffee, I'm heading out, need to stretch my legs" it was late in the afternoon and Fin had gone out to collect their lunch, so she needed some space.
"Is it okay if I tag along?" Rachel asked the team "Just want to get some air"
"Um, sure" Olivia said dismissively, like she was trying to figure out where to go next with the case. Set up a board sounded like a good idea right now, to sort out the suspects and perps and sort the relevant information around the victim from the less important.
"Can I get you anything?" Rachel asked as she shrugged her black leather jacket on. Fin was already on the phone but Santana planned to get him real coffee too.
"Yes, just the usual please" she asked.
"Sure" Rachel nodded before following Santana out of the precinct.
Once they were in the Elevator Rachel had another question on her mind. "What's wrong with you?" she didn't mean it in the way it sounded, she was genuinely asking what was wrong, and she knew something was up with her friend. There were times over the past few months when Santana would be awkward with her, more awkward than usual.
"What do you mean?" Santana muttered as she shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and eyed Rachel suspiciously.
"You've been off with me lately" Rachel shrugged back as she shyly looked at her hands. She was only ever shy when it wasn't work related, and she had a feeling Santana's problem wasn't work related.
Santana let out a long sigh "Just been a long day with a long trail to phone" she managed to say before the elevator opened and they got out, onto the busier, and noisier, first floor of the precinct.
The shorter woman had to jog to catch up as they crossed the office floor, full of people making all sorts of general enquiries "You've been off with me longer than that, try the past 6 or 7 weeks" Rachel accused.
"Have I?" Rachel wasn't stupid, Santana was avoiding eye contact.
"Yeah, you have" she followed Santana outside and had to grab her arm to slow her down, so she didn't just keep avoiding her "What is it?" she pulled Santana round to finally look at her. "Have I upset you? We're best friends you can tell me" She told her best friend. Her words were visible in the air, as her breath hit the cold air of the early December evening.
"... Well" Santana looked ashamed to say, but she couldn't hold back any longer "Britt was saying how... how she wanted to look for a new place." She sighed roughly; this wasn't how she wanted o talk about this, not outside the precinct, on the Manhattan streets. "Just for the two of us. And I-I didn't know what to say, I've been holding back on talking to you and I was hoping it didn't have to happen yet, but she's talking about a 'grown up' relationship and-"
"Santana" Rachel smiled warmly up at her. Silly Santana, Rachel thought, she should have just said.
Santana didn't trust it though, it wouldn't be that easy when and if it finally came to moving, it wouldn't be easy for Rachel... and Santana wasn't sure it would be easy for herself either. "It would be so much easier if you'd just let me tell Brittany why-"
"No." Rachel rushed to stop that thought "And yes" she added.
"What?" Santana just screwed up her face in her confusion.
"No, you can't tell her," Rachel told her adamantly before she softened her tone "and Yes you should start looking for places, and I will too"
"Really?" Santana raised a sceptical brow.
"It's time, actually it's overdue that this happens. So please, start looking" Rachel encouraged. It was time to move on, time to take a chance and change... no matter how scared she was. Quinn's words from a couple of months before just came to her in the moment, and she was right, even if their issues were vastly different, didn't mean she couldn't learn something from Quinn.
"I'm not saying its going to happen soon, anyway." Santana shrugged dismissively "Could take a while to actually find the right place and-"
Rachel just smiled encouragingly again, she gently grasped Santana's arm, getting her to stop rambling... ironically. "Santana, it's okay, I completely understand"
"I'm sorry" she added sadly.
"Don't be" Rachel assured her "It's about time I grew up" that time she was taking Brittany's quoted words, it was true, 7 years was a long time to hold onto something without getting the help to get through and past it.
Santana punched her lightly in the arm "Don't say that"
"No, I've leant on you a lot. No one else ever knew, that's really not fair to you, the least I can do is be completely understanding, which I am." She felt guilty for hanging onto Santana after the initial kindness she had shown, and she worried, still, that Santana only held on still was because she pitied the smaller detective "So you and Britt get apartment hunting, or whatever. And I'll look too and when you're ready to go I will be too"
"Are you sure? Because I could make some excuse up with Britt" she offered sympathetically.
"I really don't want you doing that, I want you happy San, and I haven't exactly been helping with that" Rachel assured her some more. She was thankful, very thankful to Santana and she always would be but she needed to give her some space, it didn't mean they wouldn't still see each other every day and still be best friends.
"Berry, before we were real friends I was stuck with two dead end jobs and a girlfriend I was worried would leave me because I had no future. You got me on a career path and now I work hard and do something that actually makes a difference, something I'm proud of." Santana told her bluntly but with care. "And I know you wouldn't be here if certain things hadn't happened, so I'm not thankful for that happening but I am thankful for your support too, you don't know it but you helped me out a lot."
"Not as much as you helped me." Rachel was sure of that.
Santana just shrugged before saying "You'd be surprised."
Q~Q
"So at the time of the murder our prime suspect was in Phili?" Cragen asked as he was all caught up on the case.
Olivia had set up a board with the crime scene photos and photo's of suspects, along with printed information and notes written with a board marker, notes on small ideas and information that could connect the people.
"Maybe she got somebody to do her dirty work for her?" Olivia re-suggested.
"Or a boyfriend. Fin's checking on the family" Rachel filled in for the detective who was still sat at his desk after making some progress on the information Santana had handed over before she went to get real coffee "What happened to keggers anyway, I mean college kids don't even party anymore, they're too busy making money organising strip shows and selling porn on the web" The shorter detective scoffed at the whole situation.
"We live in perverted times Berry" Santana informed her with sarcastic reluctance. She then narrowed her eyes on her friend "What do you know about partying in college anyway?" Rachel didn't answer, she just dismissively rolled her eyes.
"How many girls pose topless on that website? And how many have had a problem with it? 1, Chloe" Munch stepped forward after getting all caught up on the case himself.
"Just because the others didn't sue didn't mean they were any less exploited" Benson argued, already not sure she was liking where he was going.
He stepped closer to the board, scanning over the other 'victims', on Tylers site, who never came forward to complain "You think all the girls on that site felt violated?" He scoffed.
"Pretty much, yeah" she glared disbelieving at him.
"Oh please. Our culture teaches woman the easiest way to become rich and famous is to objectify themselves." Olivia just held her head in her hands, John Munch was always so forward in his opinions, and not likely to back down. Olivia made a mental note to tell Rachel to never mention conspiracy theories around him, he was a huge nut when it came to the Kennedy Assassination. "Why get a job or an education when you can become the next winner on the bachelor, its the new American dream"
Before Rachel, Santana, or Olivia could even argue with him Tutuola put the phone down and was quickly out of his seat to join them with his latest findings, grabbing something from the printer on the way "Chloe's not the only one with a motive"
"Who else?" Santana was first to ask the obvious.
He pinned a photo next to the one of Chloe. "Chloe's father, he did three years in sing-sing for assault and battery. This guy was collard last week after he busted into Tyler's Fraternity and took a swing at him"
"That sounds like a winner" Liv leant back against the edge of her desk and folded her arms as she absorbed the new info.
"It gets better than that. The man, Bernard, took a job as truck driver when he got out of the pen, spent the last year delivering furniture in a warehouse 4 blocks away from the treatment plant" he added, very pleased with his findings.
Q~Q
"I was making deliveries until midnight" Chloe's farther immediately said as they asked where he was that night. He wore jeans and a jacket, over the jacket was a reflective vest, and he wore a green beanie hat to keep himself just a little warmer in the cold months.
"On a Saturday?" Detective Lopez scoffed "I can't even get Dominos to deliver past 10 pm"
"We pride ourselves on service." He said somewhat sarcastically "What's going on?" he asked as he marched across the delivery lot, from the office hut on one side to his truck on the other.
"That frat kid you tried to beat up last week. Found his body yesterday morning" Tutuola explained quickly. The guy was in a rush, they didn't want him managing to sip away before they'd asked the important questions.
"I had nothing to do with that" he grumbled.
"But you're not sorry he's dead right?" Tutuola pushed, trying to get more from him, maybe rile him up a little. Before he could hear an answer his cell phone rang, he hung back just a little to take the call.
"The kid deserved a good ass whooping, don't mean I killed him" he continued to mumble. If he'd known the kid was gonna wind up dead he wouldn't have bothered last week trying to beat the crap out of him in his frat house.
"I get it, rich punk takes advantage of your little girl, you go to teach him a lesson, it gets out of hand" Lopez searched too, this guy seemed angry but that didn't mean they'd break him easily.
"Nah, you got the wrong guy" he sighed as he reached his truck.
Lopez had more up her sleeved though. "If you ask me, your daughter is a very fortunate girl. She goes to a bar, full of horny guys, does a strip tease, she's lucky nothing worse happened"
He clenched his teeth, and less noticeably, one of his fists "That son of a bitch humiliated her!" Bernard growled.
Fin put the phone back down and rejoined his partner. He had new info, it was time to kick this up a little more. "She knew that camera was there, she knew what she was doing" Tutuola said, and finally the protective father snapped. He went to grab the senior detective but Santana and Fin reacted together and shoved him back, against his own truck.
"Hey, take it easy. We're gonna take a little ride down to the precinct, Medical Examiner's got some evidence she wants to talk to you about" Tutuola said as he pulled out his cuffs
"What evidence?" Bernard asked, with heavy worry.
Q~Q
Melinda Warner's examination room
Shortly after Lopez and Tutuola left, Benson got a call from Dr Warner. She'd finally got results on the evidence found in their victim, Tyler Henry.
"Two kinds of fibres were found in his anal cavity." They stood in front of the light boxes where magnified photos of the fibre had been taken "It took me all day to match samples with anything from our library. Plate A is a strand of hair-"
"Killers?" Rachel may have sounded a little too hopeful.
"Only if he's related to Sea Biscuit" Warner said bluntly. Berry and Benson exchanged worried looks "The hair found in your victim is horse hair, Mongolian stallion to be precise"
Olivia thought about it, and the uses of horse hair "So maybe a sex toy, a whip of a cat of nine tails?"
"Not a bad guess, a lot of floggers are made with horse hair, normally attached to leather though." Melinda had considered everything at first, and a sex toy of that variety sounded more likely in this crime "our horse hair was bound to a rare wood known as pernambuco, exported exclusively from brazil, for the manufacture of violins and violin bows"
"He was sodomised by a violin bow" Rachel asked as she grimaced, mirroring Olivia's reaction. That evidence definitely shouted 'crime of sudden aggression'.
Q~Q
In the end that had nothing to hold Bernard Spiers on, but they told him not to skip town. With how this case was going they might be talking to him again first thing in the morning.
The four main detectives had their heads down at their desks, it had gone 8 pm, and they were still pushing the case.
It was Tutuola who noticed a young woman walking into their office. "One for you Lopez" he told his partner.
"Huh?" She asked unintelligibly. Tutuola gestured with a nod of the head to behind the junior detective, making Santana look over her shoulder. Her confused looked quickly morphed to a smile when she saw her girlfriend approaching "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"My evening class finished and I didn't want to be home alone" She pouted playfully as she wandered closer to the Latina detective.
"And how did you know I'd still be here?" she asked as she playfully pulled the blonde down to sit on her lap.
"Sanny, you've been working on the same case for three days now," she said shyly as she played with her car keys she'd been clutching tightly. She peered up at her girlfriend with shy accusatory "I know how you get. I want you to come home tonight" she pouted just a little, making Santana smile trance like.
She glanced to her other roommate to ask "You okay to get home, Berry?"
Rachel just looked at her strangely. "Uh, yeah, I drove us this morning, remember?"
"Oh yeah" Santana chuckled.
"God, Lopez, you're girlfriend shows up and your mind turns to mush" Rachel teased as she just watched them. It was like Santana could be two people, she could transform when Brittany was around.
"Can you blame me?" she asked rhetorically without even looking away from the woman sitting on her lap
"Go on, get out of here, before we all get sick from your sweetness" Olivia told them, pretending she was more sickened by them than she really was. Really it was just refreshing to see a happy couple.
"We're not sweet, we're hot" Santana corrected as she actually pulled away from her woman so she could get her jacket on and grab her bag so they could actually leave. She really could do with a cuddle... well a cuddle for starters.
"You're sweet Sanny" Brittany told her fondly before kissing the other woman, everyone averted eyes, being polite and not wanting to feel awkward.
"Go now" Rachel encouraged before they just got really embarrassing.
"Fine" she sighed "See you later Berry, and see ya tomorrow Fin, liv"
"Night" and "later" was called back as the two young woman made their escape for the night.
"Well... that never gets old" Tutuola said as he leant back in his seat.
"What?" Rachel asked him, curious.
"Seeing Santana melt in seconds" He huffed his short laugh as he shut down his computer and grabbed his coat off the back of his chair before slipping it on.
"You heading out?" Liv asked lightly.
"Yeah, just giving those two a head start, don't wanna be stuck in the elevator with them" he joked.
"Good point" Olivia just joked back.
"See you all tomorrow" he said before making his own escape.
"See ya" and "Bye" was called out by the two remaining detectives. Rachel wasn't even sure what they were following right now.
"How are they?" Olivia's voice distracted her from her latest wandering case filled thoughts.
"Who?" she asked, oblivious. Olivia looked amused at how quickly Rachel always got lost in their work.
"Santana and Brittany, I hope this job doesn't damage their relationship" she added reluctantly. She'd hate to see their happiness ruined by this.
"I don't think it would, what they've got is strong. Though, I know since we started working here, Santana doesn't go home at least one night a week, because we're working on a case" That hadn't been a common thing when they were working for Narcotics, not that often anyway, but here, the crib, the room with all the bunk beds was commonly used by all members of the team.
"And I know you don't go home as often as I don't" Olivia noted. It wasn't hard to miss that Rachel was here every hour Olivia was "You don't have to be here all the time, you know?"
"I know but, these cases, the victims are more than often still alive and I feel we need to get them closed... I don't like to think of a rape victim who doesn't get closure, and the sooner we can get that for them, the sooner they can get on with their lives" she kept her voice calm, still hiding how she wished she'd had the closure, she wished it all the time. "And you have admiral determination and commitment to the job Olivia, it's inspiring" she hated herself, knowing she sounded like she was kissing ass, but she couldn't help it. If Olivia had known her past it probably wouldn't have sounded so... weird.
Olivia kept shuffling through the paper work. "Is it?" Liv asked, her words and eyes full of questions, questions that only she could ask and answer herself, almost rhetorical questions about what she had done with her life.
Rachel furrowed her brow with worry. "Have I said something wrong?"
"No" she shook her head then rubbed her eyes, tired of the day, tired of many things. She folded her arms on the desk, abandoning all papers for a moment "No, just... sometimes I have regrets, and then I dwell on those regrets and realise, I love my job, it's not the easiest job to love but I do... and then I don't regret as much. But it's still there, all the what if's" she sighed her reluctance that she'd even admitted that.
"What have you got to regret?" maybe it was a stupid question but Rachel still wondered... maybe she'd have the same regrets in a decade or so, unless she changed things.
"Not having a family" she answered simply, doing her best to not get emotional "... all my younger life it was me and my mom and then... when she died, 10 years ago, this job and the people in it became all I had. I don't regret that part, I just regret not looking for the other part of my life, the type Elliot had, but its hard"
"What Elliot has, and what Santana has, is special, and strong. We should all be so lucky" Rachel told her partner lightly. There was sympathy but there was a tone of 'I'm here with you' too.
"You haven't found anyone?" Olivia half asked. She roughly knew there was no one currently in Rachel's life, romantically, but that didn't mean there was the thought, or hope, or past of someone.
"No" she shook her head quickly, then scoffed "I haven't even been on a date in... years"
"Married to the job?" Liv questioned a little more, if that was right then they just had more in common.
"Yeah... kind of" "So... you never even found someone you thought might be..?"
"Well... I haven't had anything long term in a couple of years." She admitted tiredly. It would have been nice if anything had exceeded 3 months but that was probably the record since she'd started the job. "It's when they ask what I do, and I tell them... and they lean away. Or even worse, they lean forward and ask for the details. Either way it ends up being a last date"
"What about the Cap, or Fin, or Munch? I barely know anything about them in that area of their lives" it was sort of an unspoken part of their lives at work.
"Well Fin... he doesn't talk about that part of his life at work. Elliot never talked about work at home. I don't know about the Captain, I heard his wife died years ago, plane crash. And Munch... I think he's given up after 3 or 4 divorces"
"Ouch" she muttered for the divorces, if that wasn't a sting in the heart it sure was in the wallet. "What about dating someone you work with?" she suggested, though she sure it was a dumb one too.
"Well I've dated other cops, but... its the same. They work in Narcotics or Vice or Homicide... they call us sex crimes, they can't imagine what we see, unless they get a case that becomes ours. It just doesn't work... but..." she trailed off, biting the inside of her mouth, wondering if she'd gone too far... it wasn't even something she was sure she'd said to herself.
"But what?" Rachel leant into her desk, closer to hear her partner better.
"I wondered, years ago if maybe there was someone, they always had- no, have this effect on me where..." she took a deep breath and lowered her voice, in case anyone over heard. "At first I thought it was like a sibling affection, the care and worry I'd feel for them... but, I just realised it isn't its more and, we've been through so much together that... once I processed everything, I just realised. But I know it would never work"
Never work? Rachel wondered "Stabler, your old partner?" she pushed.
"No, never, he was my best friend... and the constant man in my life" she said meekly, she'd never felt weak like this before, she'd felt scared before, in her job but not weak.
"Oh..." Rachel furrowed her brow while Olivia just watched her... then she got a thought "oh, a woman?" She wasn't called Detective Berry for nothing.
"Maybe" Olivia muttered shyly. It was good to open up though.
"I didn't know you were, um, gay" Rachel muttered back.
Olivia leant across her desk a little more to utter even quieter "Neither did I"
Rachel just nodded, she had nothing against that... in fact... "Interesting" she just said, not sure what else to say, really.
"That's one way of putting it" Olivia chuckled a little "You okay?"
"Yeah, just... why wouldn't it work out?" Rachel pushed. She didn't like to think of unrequited feelings, especially when it concerned her partner who was becoming a good friend, and who had welcomed her to the SVU family.
"It's too late, and she wouldn't be interested" Olivia dismissed, trying to distract herself with the files and the computer in front of her... it wasn't working though. "Stabler and I once crashed a dinner date she was on, with a very handsome lawyer, one who's actually worked against us before, many times. She seemed perfectly happy then"
"Oh... you never know though. You're strong, confident, attractive- sorry," she stopped herself before she just made more of an idiot of herself, "Just... don't want you to give up hope. You never know"
"Thanks Rachel... maybe one day I'll find the courage" she nodded, with a weak smile.
"Benson, Berry" The only other person, from the day shift left, called from his office behind Rachel.
Rachel sat up straighter at the Captains voice "Yes Captain?"
"Go home" he smiled a little at Berry's constant eagerness. It was sure to start grating at some point, but it hadn't yet "Get some sleep, both of you"
"Yes Captain" Rachel said again. Olivia and Donald Cragen, the captain, shared an amused look before his slipped back into his office. The pair started to pack up, making sure to lock files in their desk for security reasons, and shut down their computers too. "Do you think the DA's office will still be open?" Rachel asked casually as she arranged another file away.
"With all the cases going through those offices lately, I'm sure one of our ADA's will still be there. Why, what's up?" The senior partner asked.
"Nothing really, just wanted to check in on Quinn, haven't seen her in a few days and... well, we've become friends again, and she doesn't have this team like I do. I wonder even with Novak and Cabot if she's... alone. So... just wanted to talk" she said hesitantly. With what she'd spoken about recently with various friends, it had got her thinking, and she really wanted to talk to Quinn.
"You could phone ahead" Liv suggested.
"Oh... no, I think I'll just head down there on the way home, drop by, see if she's still there. If any of them are it will be her, she still sounds like she's trying to prove herself" she chuckled.
Q~Q
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Quinn asked as soon as Rachel stepped into the office. It was a pleasant surprise.
"Just wanted to check in on you" the detective noted the stacks of papers flooding Quinn's desk, it reminded her of her own not that long ago "So, you're still playing 'Assistant Assistant'?" she assumed, from the paper work.
She sighed and took her glasses off, so she could look at Rachel properly "Yeah, seems like it, I can feel it though, they keep talking behind my back and I think it's good news, since they liked all the work I completed on the Toure Case"
"That's great then" Rachel smiled as she took chair from in front f one of the other desks and placed it opposite Quinn's
"I hope so, yeah" she agreed meekly. She craved the day she could show what she was really made of in a court house, she just hoped all this dense paper work would pay off.
"Really great that you guys got Toure to go down for what he did" Rachel added, trying to build a conversation before she dove in with her juxtaposed question, that was lurking somewhere in Rachel's vocab.
"I know that case meant a lot to you and Santana" the tired young lawyer said sympathetically.
"Yeah, it did. I mean all the cases are important-" Rachel rushed to correct but it wasn't necessary.
"But that one had history for you" Quinn cut her off, understanding what Rachel meant
"Yeah" the brunette in the leather jacket agreed lightly.
"So... is there anything I can do for you?" Quinn pushed once there was a lull in the already weak conversation.
The nerves suddenly set in, Rachel started twiddling her thumbs to distract herself a little "Actually, I came here because I wanted to ask you something"
"What's wrong?" Quinn furrowed her brow, she even put down the forms she had in her hand to give Rachel her undivided attention... anything for Rachel.
"Nothing really I just wanted to know if you'd like to go to dinner sometime" she tried to sound casual... it didn't really work though.
Quinn just blinked at her, to say she was shocked was an understatement "... I don't understand" she finally voiced confusion.
"I know I shot you down suddenly, but you did bring it on suddenly." Rachel tried to explain but she just felt guilty "But we've become friends again, and the time we've spent together has been really nice... and the more I think about it the more I regret turning you down so quickly... But if I'm not being too forward or presumptuous, maybe we could go on that date" she asked again, softer than before.
"Really?" Quinn had to quirk an eyebrow.
"Yeah..." she said nervously "Unless you found someone else, of course" she rushed, before Quinn could humiliate her by telling her the same thing.
"No, no, there's no one else" the blonde told her quickly "I'd still love to go on a date with you"
"Good" Rachel breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay" Quinn smiled, hiding that she felt a little unsure about this, and also hiding the stupid grin that Rachel had asked her out on a date. "I'll set it up"
"Well I asked you so I should be taking you on the date" Rachel pointed out.
"Okay, if you're sure" Quinn checked, as she still kept herself in check.
"Yeah, I'm sure" and she was sure inside her head too, so sure. It was time to move on, and Quinn was attractive and wanted her... and she knew Quinn, she trusted Quinn.
"Okay them, um..." The young Lawyer wasn't sure what to say next.
"Can I give you a ride home?" Rachel offered. She also wanted to encourage Quinn to go home, she'd worked hard enough today as it was, she needed some encouragement to go home like Rachel had needed.
"I'd like that, thank you"
Let us know what you think... I think...
And sorry, noticed the day after I posted I didn't write a section, I left it in note form, sorry fixed now!